Displacement-based seismic design of limited ductile rectangular RC walls: from the design engineers perspective

摘要

This paper presents an overview of how designers could undertake a displacement-based seismic assessment of rectangular reinforced concrete (RC) walls in accordance with Australian codes and standards. RC detailing in Australia generally results in a limited ductile RC structure and as such will be the focus of this paper. The various seismic performance objectives set out by Australian codes and standards are summarised herein. The paper will outline how a non-linear static pushover analysis could be performed in accordance with the Australian concrete structures standard to determine the force-displacement response curve of a rectangular wall. Mean stress-strain curves representing the actual performance of reinforcement and concrete are presented. The method presented for determining the force-displacement response curve is validated against large scale laboratory test results with very good correlation shown. The paper concludes with a parametric study of rectangular walls looking at how the overstrength and displacement ductility vary with changes in the axial load ratio, effective height, concrete strength and vertical reinforcement ratio.